Is (NW Mailing List)

[NW Mailing List]

To add to what Ed has said, the PL systems may have looked similar, but they
were
electrically incompatable. At Hagerstown MD, one of the points where were
they
met, the old timers have told me they went to great length to keep them
separate.

Mason Cooper

-----Original Message-----
From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org]On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 3:01 PM
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PRR purchased 39% of the common shares of N&W in 1900-01.  This was part of
an effort to stabilize rates for coal shipments over eastern ports.  PRR
also purchased a goodly share of B&O; NYC purchased some of B&O and C&O.
After that end was realized, PRR and NYC sold their stock in B&O and C&O,
but PRR kept the interest in N&W until forced to divest as a condition of
both the PRR/NYC merger and N&W's NKP/Wabash deal in 1964.  Divestiture was
not complete until 1972; between 1964 and 1972 several hundred thousand
shares were sold each year.

I have endeavored to determine the amount of dividends paid PRR each year by
taking 39% of N&W's common stock dividend payout, with proper estimates
between 1964 and 1972.  The total, between 1900 and 1972, amounted to $407
million dollars.  You are all invited to get the CDs of N&W Annual Reports
and add them up and check my figures.  N&W never missed a dividend, even
during the Great Depression, and it is said (I have no way to check it) that
at least one year PRR's dividend payout equalled that received from N&W.

Too much can be read into the PL signals and the red passenger cars; I
rather imagine that probably because of PRR's use of those signals, N&W got
a good deal on its PL's, which shared the virtue of the 3-color light
signals in that there were no moving parts, as in semaphores and the GRS
Searchlight signals (which moved a vane with the proper color in front of
the bulb when the signal changed aspect).  And anybody can look at PRR's red
passenger cars and N&W's and know that the paint didn't come out of the same
can.

The three smartest business decisions (IMHO) that PRR ever made were: 1 - to
purchase the N&W stock; 2 - to not sell it after the rates were stabilized,
but to keep it as long as they could, and; 3 - not to mess with N&W's
operating or mechanical practices - just be quiet and let those dividends
keep pouring in.  PRR didn't influence N&W's motive power practices or
designs - that much is perfectly clear.  And if any road had a mind of its
own on these items, it was PRR.

My PRR friends get quite exercised when I remind them that a great deal of
PRR's status as the "Standard Railroad of the World" was paid for with N&W
dividends . . .

Hope this helps.

EdKing
----- Original Message -----
From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 2:29 PM
Subject: RE: Re: Is (NW Mailing List)



>

> Well, maybe N&W purchased all those P.L. signals at a yard sale .

> Cheers,> Jim Guthrie

>

>

> Pretty much... the first installations of US&S PLs were bought surplus

> from PRR.

>

> Robb Fisher

> RFDI

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